第24章

"All ready, Mr.Damon?" asked Tom, as he looked to see that all the levers, wheels, valves, and other controls were in working order on his Air Scout.

"As ready as I ever shall be, Tom," was the answer."I don't know why it is, but somehow I feel that something is going to happen on this trip.""Nonsense!" laughed Tom."You're nervous; that's all.""I suppose so.Don't think I'm going to back out, or anything like that, but I wish it were successfully over with, Tom Swift, I most certainly do.""It will be in a little while," returned Tom, as he settled himself comfortably in his seat and pulled the safety strap tight."You've gone up in this same plane before, when it didn't have the silent motor aboard.""Yes, I know I have.Oh, I dare say it will be all right, Tom.And yet, somehow, I can't help feeling--"But Tom Swift felt that the best way to set Mr.Damon's premonitions to rest was to start the motor, and this he gave orders to have done, Jackson and some others of the men from the shops congregating about the craft to see the beginning of the night flight.Mr.Swift was there also, and Eradicate.Mary Nestor had been invited, but her Red Cross work engaged her that evening, she said.Ned Newton was away from town on Liberty Bond business, and he could not be present at the test.

However, as Tom expected to have other trials when his motor was in even better shape, he was not exactly sorry for the absence of his friends.

"Contact!" called the young inventor, when Jackson had stepped back, indicating it was time to throw over the switch.

"Let her go!" cried Tom, and the next moment the motor was in operation, but so silently that his voice and that of Mr.Damon's could easily be heard above the machinery.

"Good, Tom! That's good!" cried Mr.Swift, and Tom easily heard his father's voice, though under other, and ordinary, circumstances this would have been impossible.

True, the hearing of Tom and Mr.Damon was muffled to a certain extent by the heavy leather and fur-lined caps they wore.But Tom had several small eyelet holes set into the flaps just over the opening of the ears, and these holes were sufficient to admit sounds, while keeping out most of the cold that obtains in the upper regions.

The aeroplane moved swiftly along the level starting ground, and away from the lighted hangars.Faster and faster it swung along as Tom headed it into the wind, and then, as the speed of the motor increased, the Air Scout suddenly left the earth and went soaring aloft as she had done before.

But there was this difference.She moved almost as silently as a great owl which swoops down out of the darkness--a bit of the velvety blackness itself.Up and up, and onward and onward, went the Air Scout.Tom Swift's improved, silent motor urged it onward, and as the young inventor listened to catch the noise of the machinery, his heart gave a bound of hope.For he could detect only very slight sounds.